Assessment of basic data for criticality safety and shielding design of Tokai reprocessing plant

Sudo, Toshiyuki ; not registered ; not registered ; Nojiri, Ichiro; Maki, Akira; Yamanouchi, Takamichi

As a part of the safety confirmation work of Tokai Reprocessing Plant, the appropriateness was checked on the basic data used in criticality safety and shielding design of early-designed facilities in the plant on the basis of recent knowledge and safety evaluation methods. In the criticality safety design, it was confirmed that critical and subcritical values concerning mass and concentration of U and Pu and equipment dimension were appropriate. In the shielding design, it was found that the relation between shielding thickness and permissible radioactivity might give underestimated results of shielding thickness necessary to limit dose rate to the designated one on some condition. In this cases, however, it was confirmed that necessary shielding thickness has been secured because of the conservative calculation conditions for the real conditions except the operation test laboratory (OTL). However, the amount of radioactivity handled at OTL needs to be limited. From a viewpoint of criticality safety, operational control for U and Pu transfer was also investigated, As a result of it, at the transfer route where erroneous batch-wise transfer of process solution might lead to a criticality accident, the reliability of U and Pu concentration measurement needs to be improved by multiple measurements. At other transfer routes, it was confirmed that single failure of equipment or operation error would not lead to a criticality problem.